How to write a Good Conclusion for an Essay?

Essay writing is always described as one of the most challenging aspects of education, but different parts of the essay have varying degrees of difficulty. While the body paragraphs are the biggest part of the essay, most students admit that they particularly struggle with the conclusion to their work.

The importance of a strong conclusion for a successfully written essay cannot be overrated. A good conclusion summarizes the writing, gives the readers some food for thought, and strengthens the author’s position. There are many ways to make your conclusion more persuasive. Here are some tips on how to write the perfect conclusion to your essay:

• The introduction is not the place where you should add new ideas to the mix. This part is used to highlight the most important points from the body of the essay, not offer some completely new information. However, you can finish your conclusion with a question containing a new idea to stimulate your readers to do some thinking of their own.
• While the purpose of the introduction and the conclusion is somewhat similar, these two parts should not be similar. The conclusion should demonstrate your thinking process that you used in the body paragraphs, which is why its content is vastly different from the introduction.
• Avoid the urge to make your essay conclusion simply a summary of the body paragraphs. It’s important to remind the readers about the information you placed in the body of the essay, but the conclusion is a valuable part of the writing where every word counts. Offer a short summary at the beginning of the conclusion, but then move on to the more important aspects of the conclusion.

How do you Start a Conclusion in an Essay?

The conclusion to the essay as a whole is an essential part of the writing process, but the first sentence of your conclusion is the sentence that should impress the readers the most. The beginning of the conclusion should immediately bring the audience back to the main idea of the essay. These tips will help you start your essay conclusion with a bang:

• Perhaps, the most important piece of advice you can get on starting the conclusion is to keep it simple. The job of a conclusion is not to supply the readers with some new ideas, which is why it can be very helpful to give you and the reader some rest. The beginning of your conclusion should be brief and uncomplicated, regardless of the approach you pick for writing this part.
• An easy way to add value to your essay while also putting special emphasis on the conclusion is to state the importance of your work. Why exactly did you decide to cover this topic and which goals were you hoping to meet? Answer these questions with the beginning of your conclusion to make it clear to the audience that your work is a valuable addition to the academic discussion.
• The framing approach is an excellent way to make your conclusion stronger. The purpose of framing is to remind your readers of the event or fact your essay is based upon. It helps the audience focus again on the most important parts of your writing. The easiest way to use the framing approach is to simply repeat the first sentence of your essay in the beginning of the conclusion, although you can also paraphrase the sentence if you don’t want to go for the full repetition.
• If your essay is based upon a certain problem, another effective approach of starting your conclusion is to propose a solution for the problem in the first sentence. This approach is particularly useful if you have a limited word count. In that case, you can propose the solution without describing the problem again — the readers will instantly remember which problem you are referring to.

Essay Conclusion – Common Mistakes

The job of writing an essay conclusion is not an easy one, and there are several mistakes you need to avoid:

1. Repeating the introduction word for word. It’s okay to use the ideas from the introduction, particularly the thesis statement, in your conclusion, but it’s best to paraphrase them to avoid repetition.
2. By the time you finish your essays, you may have doubts over the validity and precision of your research. However, never apologize in your conclusion — it takes a lot of value out of your work.
3. When there are many ideas you want to fit in your conclusion, you risk making it unorganized and messy. Always follow a logical flow when writing the essay conclusion.
4. Avoid including new ideas in your conclusion —  they will disrupt the thinking process of the readers and distract them from fully immersing themselves in your narrative.
5. Stats and quotes should be used with caution in the conclusion of the essay: the best place to use them is the introduction and body paragraphs, not the conclusion.

Essay Conclusion Structure

The choice of the structure for your essay conclusion largely depends on the type of essay you are writing. However, there are some tips on choosing a conclusion structure that will work for any type of essay. If you struggle with structuring the conclusion of your essay, this universal structure may help:

• Restate your thesis statement
• Summarize the conclusion to body paragraph #1
• Summarize the conclusion to body paragraph #2
• Summarize the conclusion to body paragraph #3
• Conclude the essay, preferably with answering the “So what?” question

What is an Essay Conclusion Example?

Many students find that seeing other people’s essay conclusions inspires them, helps them understand the structure of this paragraph better, and helps them format their own conclusion to create a successful piece of writing. If you also feel you could benefit from the examples of essay conclusions written by professional USA writers, we have prepared some of the strongest and most impressive conclusions for an essay for you to check out.